This invention relates to drain cleaning apparatus and devices and, more particularly, to improvements in portable, motor-operated drain cleaners.
Relatively small, portable drain cleaners are of course well known and, generally, include a drain cleaning snake or cable coiled in a housing or drum from which an end of the cable extends for introduction into a drain or sewer line to be cleaned. The drum is rotated in order to rotate the cable about its axis as the latter is advanced into the drain, and such rotation of the drum is achieved by coupling the drum with a suitable drive motor which, in some instances is provided by a hand held drill. The cable is advanced out of the drum and into a drain either manually, by pulling the cable outwardly of the drum, or through the use of a cable feeding device attached to the drum as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,158,076 to Rutkowski, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,436 to Burch, et al., or to a guide tube or hose as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,588 to Rutkowski, all of which patents are incorporated herein by reference for background information.
In such drain cleaning apparatus heretofore known, the drum is a rotating part which a user must contend with during operation of the drain cleaner. Moreover, in the absence of a cable feeding device, the user must de-energize the drive motor and manually displace the cable out of the drum during a drain cleaning operation and back into the drum following completion of the operation. Such manual displacement of the cable exposes the user's hands, gloves or other clothing to the grime and other moisture-laden material which adheres to the cable as the latter advances into and is withdrawn from a drain or the like being cleaned. In any event, the drain cleaning apparatus and devices of the foregoing character heretofore available are not easy to use, most often do not provide for hands-off operation with respect to the cable, expose a user to contact with the rotating cable drum, and render a drain cleaning operation tedious and, often, undesirably time-consuming.